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Seeking AE 3D recommendations
I think I may have asked about this some time ago here, but I have a little more information this time around.
I’m looking for a way to enhance AE’s 3D output beyond the clever fakery available through effects like shatter. To be honest, most of what I’d be doing would be taking organization/department logos and making them 3D, but I need the option of making 3D primitives and custom shapes as well, perhaps even a full 3D scene if absolutely necessary.
I’ve looked at Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator, and that might be the cheapest and simplest solution. However, I’ve heard about people hitting a pretty nasty wall as far as its customization capabilities and abilities to build scenes. Also, the one time I tried it out (admittedly, this was before I knew much about it), my normally decent computer choked while trying to render single frames for the comp viewer.
My other choice would probably be Cinema 4D or something more expensive (read: unlikely that I’ll be able to convince my boss to buy). I know virtually nothing about C4D, but anything more sophisticated is probably overkill for what I need.
One of my main concerns is that I not have to draw all these logos again in the 3D program; I want to be able to import them and manipulate them from there, and I didn’t know whether C4D was capable of that.
Sorry for the long post; I just wanted to be as detailed as possible in case anyone wanted to help.
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8 Replies
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Unless you really want to go through the 3d app pipeline I would suggest that Zaxwerks 3d invigorator would do precisely the job for you – bonuses are you can create your own 3d objects from standard primitives or extruded shapes from illustrator paths – very handy for logos and it integrates well with AEs own camera system – AND you get to do everything within ae.
You can also import other 3d models like dxf or even 3ds I think. Definately worth a look at. -
If you do go 3D, I can’t recommend C4D any more. You mentioned ‘and possibly a more high end program’. If you get C4D Studio Bundle, I challenge you to find something in there that isn’t working for you for the things you need. Unless you’re getting into some serious custom programming or heavy character animation, C4D is a brilliant package that beautifully rips of Max, Maya, and lightwave blended in one package that feels like a motion graphics 3D dream.
As far as imports, just import the EPS of the logo and drop it into a ‘extrude nurbs’ object. There you can make it as thick as you want as well as add caps and fillets of different bevel types.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Note:
Download the C4D demo from the Maxon site and it should answer your questions about it.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
The money you (or your company) spend on C4D will be well worth it I think. I bought it about 3 weeks ago and I’m doing fairly sophisticated 3D work. Text and logos are easy to do and it fits hand in glove with AE. It is a powerful application but while the learning curve isn’t bad, it’s not as “easy” as I constantly read. But t can help you take your work to the next level and I have no doubt I’ll enhance my work and career using it. Previous posts as to C4D’s level of sophistication is on the money. I also bought Zawerks sometime ago but it really wasn’t up to the job. Good luck.
Cheers.All the best
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Thanks for the advice, everyone. Every outside opinion I get from people involved in production helps my case when I go to ask for a new tool. I’m a big fan of having the kind of control a fully functional 3D app gives you as opposed to having a beefed-up plugin, so I’m glad to hear so many good things about C4D.
This isn’t to discourage anyone else from offering their two cents; I just wanted to make sure that those who have already commented got recognized. Thanks again, guys.
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why do you say you can’t reccomend c4d anymore? anything better? I was just about to order it.
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I think Chris meant that he couldn’t recommend it more highly. 🙂
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Correct. I could not possibly find a way in all of my soul to put it at a higher recommendation level than I can currently using the languages that I speak (barely).
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com
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